BILL NUMBER: SCR 64	CHAPTERED  02/18/00

	RESOLUTION CHAPTER   23
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   FEBRUARY 18, 2000
	ADOPTED IN SENATE   FEBRUARY 16, 2000
	ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY   FEBRUARY 16, 2000
	AMENDED IN SENATE   FEBRUARY 16, 2000

INTRODUCED BY   Senators Burton and Johnson
   (Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Baugh and Villaraigosa)

                        FEBRUARY 10, 2000

   Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 64--Relative to the one hundred
fiftieth anniversary of the First Session of the California
Legislature.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 64, Burton.  Commemoration of the First Legislature.
   This measure would memorialize the one hundred fiftieth
anniversary of the First Session of the California Legislature.




   WHEREAS, Upon the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo
on May 30, 1848, Alta California passed from the jurisdiction of the
Mexican Republic to the jurisdiction of the United States of America,
culminating hostilities begun in 1846; and
   WHEREAS, Following the Treaty, the Congress of the United States
in its sessions of 1848 and 1849 failed to provide for a civil
government in the region, leaving a military government previously
established under the laws of war that would operate with the
presumed consent of the People; and
   WHEREAS, The population of California increased exponentially
following the discovery of gold, creating a constituency avid for the
establishment of popular government based on the familiar law of the
United States; and
   WHEREAS, In response to popular meetings in San Jose, San
Francisco, Sonoma, Monterey, Coloma, San Diego, and at the Yuba River
advocating representative government, and to the establishment of
local legislative bodies in Sonoma, Sacramento, and San Francisco,
Brigadier General Bennet Riley issued a proclamation on June 3, 1849,
calling for elections to a Constitutional Convention to convene in
Monterey on September 1; and
   WHEREAS, The Constitutional Convention produced the first
fundamental document of California in the American era, proclaimed by
General Riley on October 12, 1849, who then called for the election
of the first Legislature on November 13, 1849; and
   WHEREAS, Following the election, the first Legislature met in San
Jose at a two-story adobe known as the Sainsevain Hotel on December
15, and achieved a quorum on December 17; and
   WHEREAS, From the date of the Constitutional Convention, nine
months prior to the admission of California to the Union, through the
date of final adjournment on April 22, 1850, the First Legislature
adopted California's first civil and criminal statutes, establishing
the boundaries for counties, creating the first administrative
offices of state government including the State Archives, State
Librarian, and the Office of State Printer, declaring all roads
public highways, establishing a revenue stream based on property and
per capita taxes, and providing the procedure for the establishment
of colleges and universities; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature celebrates the institution
of popularly elected representative government in California upon the
one hundred fiftieth anniversary of its First Session, with renewed
dedication to the protection of rights and perfection of justice for
all the citizens of this state; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Legislature hereby commemorates and
respectfully honors those individuals who answered the first call to
legislative service on behalf of the People of the State of
California:  Senators William R. Bassham, Nathaniel Bennett, John
Bidwell, David C. Broderick, Ephraim Kirby Chamberlin, Elisha O.
Crosby, Pablo de la Guerra, David F. Douglass, William D. Fair,
Thomas Jefferson Green, Elcan Heydenfeldt, Alexander W. Hope,
Benjamin S.  Lippincott, Gabriel B. Post, Henry Robinson, Nelson
Taylor, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, Thomas L. Vermeule, Selim E.
Woodworth; Assembly Members Joseph Aram, Drury P. Baldwin, Ebenezer
B. Bateman, John Bigler, John Ely Brackett, John S.  Bradford, Elam
Brown, Herman C. Cardwell, John Cave, Samuel J. Clarke, Pierre Barlow
Cornwall, Benjamin Cory, Jose Maria Covarrubias, Charles Mack
Creaner, Alexander Parker Crittenden, William Grove Deal, James A.
Gray, Richard W.  Heath, Thomas Jefferson Henley, John T. Hughes,
Montgomery Martin, Elisha McKinstry, Benjamin Franklin Moore, Joseph
C.  Morehead, Isaac S.K. Ogier, John Alexander Patterson, Theron R.
Per Lee, Edmund Randolph, Levi Stowell, Henry A. Tefft, George B.
Tingley, John Wesley Van Benschoten, William Van Voorhies, Madison
Walthall, John Watson, Alfred Wheeler, Thomas Jefferson White, John
Williams, and Oliver S. Witherby; and James F. Howe, first Secretary
of the Senate, Thomas J. Austin, first Sergeant-at-Arms of the
Senate, E.H. Tharp, first Chief Clerk of the Assembly, and Samuel N.
Houston, first Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assembly.
